The Grichan Partnership

About the team

Quality focused executive search to find and attract the right leaders for your business

The Grichan Partnership is staffed by experienced, senior business executives who have joined the company from careers in the industries and companies we now serve. Our consultants not only understand your challenges but have often experienced and solved them.

Read more about the team:

Richard Hewitt

Richard brings multi-sector global business experience to the Partnership. Having worked previously both B2B and B2G for outsourced service providers of people and technology solutions and with a background in share dealing and process-improvement management consultancy, Richard is drawn to solve business problems by the efforts of good people. Keenly aware of the dynamics of large and small corporates, and able to quickly assess individuals’ cultural fit within an organisation, Richard handles the most senior searches at the Partnership. In his spare time, Richard is one of the UK’s most senior advanced motorcycling instructors and enjoys travelling abroad on one of his own bikes as often as he can.

Ralph English

Ralph, along with Richard, founded The Grichan Partnership. After a highly commended career in the Special Forces, Ralph worked in the public sector as a programme manager and business unit leader in technological research to support the UK’s counter-terrorism efforts. He then joined Olive Group as Vice President to lead a new technical service line and took it from a standing start to success within two years. This is now a £30M business. Confounded by the poor service he experienced as the client of executive search companies, Ralph shared Richard Hewitt’s vision of a highly responsive headhunting consultancy that worked to a deeply embedded quality management system. In his limited spare time, Ralph races a 1000cc track-only Honda Motorcycle around circuits in the UK and abroad.

Alan Madsen

Alan joined Grichan as a partner in 2009 following ten years as a future projects director in construction and outsourced services. This was preceded by an eighteen-year career as a commissioned Army officer. With a successful record leading complex, multi-disciplinary, joint-venture programmes for business-critical opportunities, Alan’s detailed experience of work-winning processes and programme-mobilisation drive his focus to achieve the optimum outcome for clients. At weekends Alan may be found fervently stalking the elusive salmon on the rivers around Dartmoor or working his two black labs in the field.

Peter Barrett

Many years in the hospitality industry, managing large hotels in the UK and abroad, have given Peter operational, diplomatic, personnel and P&L management skills. A further twelve years in business development roles in the UK, selling into the financial, legal and insurance sectors equipped Peter with a detailed understanding of the importance of both building strong solutions-sales teams and of developing long-term, trusted partnerships with senior stakeholders, internally and client-side. Peter’s weekends are consumed by family life and trout fishing.

Garfield Austin

Garfield brings an eclectic skill set to the Partnership; he spent ten years in MoD in logistics, procurement and secretariat followed by a spell in performing arts and education. This was followed by business development and research for a niche public-policy-analysis and event company; building relationships with c-level executives, academics and high-ranking officials. He joined Grichan Partnership two years ago and has worked on senior-post assignments in defence, security, logistics and consulting. He is an Associate of the Royal College of Music, a published photographer and, oddly, one of three advanced drivers on the Grichan Team.

James Parn

James brings to Grichan all the qualities that come from a career spent putting the customer first. A graduate in Philosophy from the University of Sheffield, fine wine enthusiast and long-term Newcastle United apologist, James spent his early career in retail and hospitality, managing hotels and restaurants for the popular Cotswolds-based Lucky Onion Group before a move into sales and then recruitment. James is a meticulous researcher, has sourced and placed candidates within niche sectors and is always looking to help – whether it’s with Riesling or recruitment!

Adam Simpson

Adam joined the Grichan team in 2015 following eight years in telecommunications and retail management. Adam works closely with Ralph English on search and delivery assignments across multiple sectors. Since joining the Grichan team Adam has helped grow the business by recruiting four other team members, allowing for delivery of a larger number of concurrent projects. Currently living in Evesham with his wife, two children and dalmatian, Adam enjoys country life, long walks and playing tennis in his spare time.

Alice Bird

Alice has the dual roles of EA to the partners and finance administrator. A Marketing graduate, Alice came to Grichan with a sound understanding of niche recruitment, having worked in companies serving the engineering and gaming sectors. She ranks cross-fitness and skiing as her favourite weekend pursuits.

Martin Gammon

Martin has chaired Grichan Partnership for the past two years, bringing a level of senior management experience that is seldom found in the recruitment sector, having successfully led OCS, a company with 27,000 employees and £500m turnover. His strategic thinking, senior network and market knowledge – especially of managed services – have enabled Grichan Partnership to “further distance itself from the recruitment herd” (as one candidate put it). Away from the desk, Martin is a sports enthusiast and enjoys golf and walking which, he insists, are “not the same thing”.